“I watched a NOVA special on PBS about deep-sea hydrothermal vents,” says Lang, an
assistant professor in the School of Earth, Ocean and Environment at USC. “I thought
they were so amazing and beautiful, watching the black smoke going into the water
column.”

We’re finding out a lot about what the limits of life are — how far can you push life
before life is no longer possible.

Susan Lang

That same early wonder is the driving force behind her internationally respected leadership
on two global research programs that offer a direct window into how life formed on
Earth and could be forming today on other planets. In the past four years, Lang has
worked on and often led international collaborations at the Atlantis Massif subsurface
and an upcoming expedition into the Lost City Hydrothermal Field, a geological environment
so valuable it’s under consideration for protection by the UNESCO World Heritage Center.

Lang’s research has shed light on many surprising secrets of extreme underwater environments.
Perhaps no discovery is more seminal than her finding that geochemical cycles can
produce organic molecules abiotically — that is, without living organisms.

“We’re finding out a lot about what the limits of life are — how far can you push
life before life is no longer possible,” says Lang. “Lost City may be a living example
of the earliest transitions from non-biological to biological processes, and representative
of similar processes on other planetary bodies.”

Lang, who has twice been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences and is a sought-after
presenter in earth and atmospheric sciences, has garnered close to $1 million in grant
funding from research agencies including the National Science Foundation and NASA
since 2014. Her efforts have helped establish a groundbreaking ocean sciences research
facility at Carolina.

“We have the instruments to do our own analyses in-house and, even better, have the
capability to adapt what we’re investigating based on the results we uncover,” says
Lang.

While the lab makes her pioneering work more efficient, there’s another reason it
is close to her heart. “My students can analyze their own samples at a learning pace,
and they have time to get to know the instrumentation very well,” she says. After
all, Lang says, the next rising star in ocean sciences might find inspiration through
hands-on research in her lab, much like Lang’s own undersea ambition was set in motion
watching a TV science show.

Breakthrough Stars

Breakthrough awards, presented each year by the Office of the Vice President for Research, recognize faculty and graduate students for their research and scholarly excellence.
The Breakthrough Leadership in Research award recognizes the university’s distinguished
senior faculty; the Breakthrough Star award honors outstanding early career faculty;
and the Breakthrough Graduate Scholar award acclaims exceptional graduate students.
Learn more in Breakthrough publications.